‘Thinking Something Makes It So': Performing robots, the workings of mimesis and the importance of character

TY - CHAP

T1 - ‘Thinking Something Makes It So'

T2 - Performing robots, the workings of mimesis and the importance of character

AU - LePage, Louise

PY - 2016/7

Y1 - 2016/7

N2 - ‘“Thinking Something Makes It So”: Performing Robots, The Workings of Mimesis, and the Importance of Character’ responds to the prospect that we are on the cusp of ‘ The Age of Robots’ , when humans will share their world with sociable and autonomous robots. A surprising number of plays are springing up around technologically progressive parts of the globe that cast robot performers as character versions of themselves (as opposed to being performed by humans). This chapter explores the question, ‘ What do robots have to do with stage plays?’ and finds that, more than their novelty, robot performers fascinate audiences for what they reveal about being a twenty-first century human, and for their implications for drama. Analysing the work of Three Sisters: Android Version (2012), a naturalistic play written and directed by Oriza Hirata and produced by Japan’ s Seinendan Theatre Company, in collaboration with Osaka University Robot Theater Project, I argue that the production’s human and robot performers are, alike, naturalist in ways that are historically distinctive of the science and technology of our times. Building from Kara Reilly’s ‘ onto-epistemic mimesis’ (2011), I show how the performing robot – Geminoid F – who is cast in the drama, Three Sisters: Android Version, works in the context of the theatrical space to ‘pit belief against truth, leading us to believe in the android’s performance of her character even though we empirically know she is a sophisticated form of mechanical puppet’. Provocatively, I argue that ‘more important than species identity is character’ in the process of engendering audience empathy, as the performing robot fuses with her imaginary dramatic character in the minds of the audience to produce her as a humanlike individual that audiences can believe in.

AB - ‘“Thinking Something Makes It So”: Performing Robots, The Workings of Mimesis, and the Importance of Character’ responds to the prospect that we are on the cusp of ‘ The Age of Robots’ , when humans will share their world with sociable and autonomous robots. A surprising number of plays are springing up around technologically progressive parts of the globe that cast robot performers as character versions of themselves (as opposed to being performed by humans). This chapter explores the question, ‘ What do robots have to do with stage plays?’ and finds that, more than their novelty, robot performers fascinate audiences for what they reveal about being a twenty-first century human, and for their implications for drama. Analysing the work of Three Sisters: Android Version (2012), a naturalistic play written and directed by Oriza Hirata and produced by Japan’ s Seinendan Theatre Company, in collaboration with Osaka University Robot Theater Project, I argue that the production’s human and robot performers are, alike, naturalist in ways that are historically distinctive of the science and technology of our times. Building from Kara Reilly’s ‘ onto-epistemic mimesis’ (2011), I show how the performing robot – Geminoid F – who is cast in the drama, Three Sisters: Android Version, works in the context of the theatrical space to ‘pit belief against truth, leading us to believe in the android’s performance of her character even though we empirically know she is a sophisticated form of mechanical puppet’. Provocatively, I argue that ‘more important than species identity is character’ in the process of engendering audience empathy, as the performing robot fuses with her imaginary dramatic character in the minds of the audience to produce her as a humanlike individual that audiences can believe in.

KW - three sisters

KW - robot

KW - character

KW - seinendan theater company

KW - Belief

KW - Android theatre

KW - Oriza Hirata

KW - Posthuman

KW - Empathy

KW - Naturalism

KW - Performance

KW - Robots

UR - http://www.scopus.com/inward/record.url?scp=85008893199&partnerID=8YFLogxK

U2 - 10.1057/978-1-137-48403-1_14

DO - 10.1057/978-1-137-48403-1_14

M3 - Chapter

SN - 978-1-137-48402-4

SP - 279

EP - 301

BT - Twenty-First Century Drama

A2 - Adiseshiah, Siân

A2 - LePage, Louise

PB - Palgrave Macmillan

ER -